The first three hours of my day are rigidly scripted. I find that having a choreographed morning routine removes my ability to make bad decisions about how my day starts. (My morning routine changes as my life and circumstances change, so what I do today is not the same as what I did ten years ago.) [...]
90% of the world’s drops are done by jugglers. Whatever you juggle - balls, fruit, chainsaws, or family schedules - you are statistically more likely to drop what you juggle than the people who never throw anything. Dropping the ball is part of how we learn. The placement of the drop - way off to [...]
As the military general in charge of US operations in Europe during World War II, Dwight Eisenhower had many difficult days. He had to handle shifting priorities in complex, uncertain situations. His leadership was characterized by a keen understanding of the difference between urgency and importance. “What is important is seldom urgent and what is [...]
In his book The Game Changer, Dr Jason Fox says that a game is anything that has goals, rules, and feedback. A good game balances all three of these against one another, to make an experience that can be so good it can be addicting. Work is often the opposite. Unclear goals, arbitrary rules, and confusing feedback (if there [...]
The house was a wreck. That’s what happens when six young boys spend Saturday morning running amok. My two brothers and I were often left with another family when we were young. This other family had three boys the same age, making us six boys under the age of ten. Containing this hurricane of activity [...]
I’m a polymath, so you may have been surprised by the variety of topics you see me write about. Depending on what phase of my interests I was in when you started following me, you may be a little confused about who I am and what I do. To give you some context, I’ll give you [...]
When the psychoanalyst Carl Jung was challenging the philosophy of Sigmund Freud, he needed complete focus. Freud had become the leading voice in psychiatry, and Jung supported him early in his career, because of their shared interest in the subconscious mind. But as Jung grew older, and saw more patients in his Zurich office, he [...]
When I spent a year attending the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre, we spent a lot of time working hard on our ability to play. Class of 2001 The program was intense. Dozens of students from all around the world came together in a small town in Northern California, high up in the [...]
I spend a lot of my time beyond the cutting edge. If the Early Adopters in the 'Diffusion of Innovation' theory of Everett Rogers are the ones on the Cutting Edge, the Innovators are on the Bleeding Edge. 'Diffusion of Innovation' image by Wikipedia Web3 is on the bleeding edge right now. [...]
I play guitar with my thumbs. Not just my right thumb - it’s normal to use both the thumb and fingers when you are picking the strings - but my left thumb, too. On the frets of a guitar, you use the fingers of your non-dominant hand to hold down some of the six strings, [...]